McConnell urges Biden to negotiate with McCarthy on debt limit: 'We must never default'

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urged President Joe Biden on Wednesday to negotiate with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on a compromise plan to raise the nation's spending limit amid a looming deadline to avoid a default.

McCarthy, for his part, has released a plan to extend the debt limit for another year while capping domestic spending growth and eliminating green energy tax credits.

"This agreement must be reached because we must never default and the agreement must be reached between the Speaker and the president," the Kentucky lawmaker said, according to The Hill. "What happens next is what I have said repeatedly for the last couple of months. I want to disabuse any of you of the notion that there’s any measure clearing the Senate with 60 votes that could be approved by this House."

Biden has thus far refused to meet with McCarthy to discuss the matter, sticking to his support for a clean increase to the spending limit without any attached cuts. The pair met in February after which McCarthy had expressed optimism that they could "find common ground."

McConnell further recalled prior incidents in which Biden negotiated on debt limit increase, such as in 2011 when the pair reached a compromise on the same issue. 

"[T]he president knows how to do this," he said. "Until he and the Speaker of the House reach an agreement, we’ll be at a standoff... The American people expect the president and the Speaker to get together and work this out."

The Kentucky Republican offered support to McCarthy as well, saying "I think the Speaker has done an excellent job of unifying our side."

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.